Delivering practical, research-driven solutions to global development challenges.
LASER PULSE Research Opportunities
One of the core functions of LASER PULSE is to award grants to researchers who are committed to translating their research results into easily understood formats. The purpose of this is to ensure that research-driven solutions are actually implemented in the real world.
LASER PULSE's call for research proposals will be driven by Purdue University's Comprehensive Issue Analysis process employed for selecting critical development research topics. Research agendas derived from implementing this process at our semi-annual R4D Conferences will be built into each round of requests for concept notes.
Via 7 funding rounds over a 4-year period (2019-2022), LASER PULSE will distribute approximately 30 grants ranging from $100,000 to $200,000 per award. Grants will only be awarded to research teams formed through collaboration between US and developing country universities, plus at least one field-level development practitioner, private sector actor, or LMIC government agency.
Grants Award Process
Following each R4D conference, LASER PULSE will place a call for concept notes consisting of a 1-2 page summary of proposed research. Each entry will be evaluated for its quality and potential impact; approximately 20 will be selected in order to invite the submitting research team to supply LASER PULSE with a full research proposal. Gender and research translation must explicitly be demonstrated in every proposal to be considered for selection. Several grants will be awarded for each round of requests.
Schedule of Initial LASER PULSE R4D Conferences:
Semi-annual 3-day conferences held in rotating regions in USAID countries, click for details:
- Kampala, Uganda - May 6-8, 2019
- Bangkok, Thailand - Fall 2019
- West Africa (Senegal/Ghana), or India - Spirng 2020
